This week Paul takes a exploreswhy the Christmas season is the most meaningful to him in the Christian calendar. First he takes a deep dive into his Christology (ie, the study of Christ and why he matters), and then he shares a brief personal story about why this season matters to him as much as it does. What's your favorite season or holiday in your tradition? What does Christmas mean to you? And which "Jesus" do you like best?

In this week's episode Paul goes through a very unscientific survey he asked Trump voters he knows to fill out. The reality is that enough Americans support him to have elected him again, and Paul felt a need to understand a little better why people support him. And out of this tiny survey, came a revelation for Paul about what "the left" is missing when it comes to our current sociopolitical state and electoral politics.

On Friday afternoon, the day this episode was recorded, the Texas Board of Education voted to allow the Bluebonnet curriculum to not only be allowed in its schools, but incentivizes them to do so. What is this a problem? Because the curriculum is fraught with Christian teaching. This week, Paul (speaking as a pastor and substitute teacher) breaks down two units from the curriculum, exposing their problems both socially and theologically, as well as positing why this curriculum violates the First Amendment.

This week Paul reacts to the presidential election. He outlines his feelings about it, as well as what he thinks we need to be doing between now and January 20th, when Donald Trump will be inaugurated into his 2nd term. He'd love your feedback, particularly about how we can be prepared to combat whatever may be coming that infringes on basic human rights, democracy, and freedom.

This week Paul welcomes his friends and fellow seminarians Kari Niedermaier and Matthew David Morris on the pod. They discuss the election, how their varying spiritualities inform their views on the present and possible future state of the US post-election, and what it means to simply be a human in this time and space. We hope you find this conversation as enriching as they did being a part it!

In a late drop, this week Paul looks at the one-man-show All The Devils Are Here as a way of exploring humanity's potential for evil. Patrick Page's show All The Devils Are Here traces how Shakespeare created "the villain", but also looks at our own potential for it. None of us exempt. So how do we approach evil, deal with it, and understand how people get there?

In this episode Paul breaks down Rainn Wilson's book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. Rainn Wilson is most famous for playing Dwight Schrute on the TV show The Office, and in 2023 he published Soul Boom, which has led to his podcast of the same title. Rainn Wilson is a deeply spiritual person, and has some great thoughts on how vital an authentic and robust spirituality may be to healing our nation's and world's ills. In this episode, Paul talks about the book, why what Rainn Wilson is getting at is so important, and invites us into the movement.

This week Paul looks into Pastor and US Senator Raphael Warnock's idea that a vote is "like a kind of prayer". Is it? Perhaps yes, but also maybe not so much. Here Paul unpacks that metaphor a bit, while also naming just how important it is to vote. Are you registered to vote? Get registered at www.vote.gov.